Decatur Diary | February 1, 2011

“Right On!”: Decaturites Give Thumbs Up to Draft Plan

At the Drop-By Open House on Monday, January 31, residents got a good look at the latest steps towards an update of the City’s 10-year Strategic Plan. The process is fast approaching finalization, thanks to a record-level of community participation over the last year.

Next up: A final report that will represent a refinement of the draft content presented on the Open House display boards, integrating comments and addressing questions from citizens Monday night. Most heartening of all the comments posted at the Open House were ones like this, endorsing the process that has refined thousands of citizens’ ideas into key principles, goals, and tasks:

‘Right on!,’ says one commenter. ‘Thanks for listening to the round tables!’

“We know there are always details to iron out, and there are plenty of passionate discussions ahead,” said assistant city manager Lyn Menne. “But it’s great to see the enthusiasm for the broader goals we’ve worked on together and the support for achieving them. It’s another only-in-Decatur moment.”

The January 31 Open House wrapped up a long community evolvement process that enjoyed record participation. The stakes were obvious. Decaturites were essentially creating a city-wide to-list for the next decade. For an overview of the goals of the process, check out the column to the immediate right. And to follow the steady development of ideas through each stage, read the posts preceding this one and watch the videos included in each report.

What are the big themes for the Strategic Plan? They’re the ones that emerged from early community Round Table discussions: Healthy growth in harmony Decatur’s character; diversity and community engagement; environmental responsibility; a safe, healthy, fulfilling community for people in all stages of their lives.

While these kinds of hopes are ones Decatur holds in common with lots of other places, the difference in Decatur is that the City, in collaboration with citizens, use the principles and goals to assign themselves specific tasks. Which means, together, we commit to list of actions we’ll all be held accountable for accomplishing.

And why not? We agreed together, through months of Round Table conversations and open houses like the one on January 31, that this is the direction we want to take our community and these are the things we know we have to do to get where we want to go.

Take a look at the posted boards to see the tasks we’re considering. And let us know what you think.

Take a tour through the evening’s photos below. And then post your own thoughts and ideas. We look forward to hearing from you.